1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of commercial refrigeration systems and more particularly to an improved system for detecting a refrigerant leak and automatically purging the refrigeration system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many commercial refrigeration systems operate with ammonia as a refrigerant. In the event of a refrigerant leak into the interior of the refrigerator/freezer vaporous ammonia will contaminate the products being stored.
Prior to the present invention the most common method of detecting refrigerant leaks was to periodically manually inspect the refrigerated area. It has also been known to use ammonia detectors in the refrigerated environment to activate an alarm and/or interrupt refrigerant flow in the system. Even when the refrigerant flow is interrupted there can be substantial amounts of pressurized ammonia within the refrigerated environment. Prior art leak detection systems do not address the problem of continued refrigerant leakage from this source and the attendant product contamination which results.